Log in/Register

Please log in or register to continue. Registration is free and requires only your email address.

Log in

Register

Emailrequired

PasswordrequiredRemember me?

Please enter your email address and click on the reset-password button. You'll receive an email shortly with a link to create a new password. If you have trouble finding this email, please check your spam folder.

Kevin Rudd, former Prime Minister of Australia, is President of the Asia Society Policy Institute in New York and Chair of the Independent Commission on Multilateralism. He is the author of “UN 2030 – Rebuilding Order in a Troubled World.”

The UN is a formidable institution, but indeed it needs to reinvent itself. It was made and could answer at a time when the world was different. Things have changed over the past three decades. Mainly one topic: the world is accelerating at a speed never seen before! And the UN is not equipped to analyze, come up with options or act in such a world. Sovereignty of countries needs to be kept, however at the same time an institution is needed to voice solutions to population growth, inequalities, technology control, data privacy, etc. The issue of speed vs. control. A book will be coming up in December, called "the Accelerating World: speed vs. control", with some directions for thoughts and questions open to further debates. Above all, it is question of pooling ideas and perspectives around a common goal - adapting to new world conditions.

There is a problem for many of us regarding the amount of money spent by international organizations on salaries and staff benefits as against providing the support services for those who need it most. With 65 million displaced persons around the world (due to war or extreme climatic conditions), bodies like UNHCR should be somewhat less rich in personnel. What is a reasonable percentage of funds provided for the staff? I would suggest a target of 5% may change the attitude of a lot of people to providing support.
With the ageing population in most countries, there is a good source of volunteer capability; perhaps the UN could reduce costs by even more if this is used?
That may also apply to those who want to serve in the higher echelons of the UN; I wonder if Angela Merkel has had enough of German politics to take on the Sec Gen job for a zero salary??

Has the UN been a failure? Or has pollyanna socialist & politicians finally arrive to the fact the UN was created for the big 3 to control issues of significant interest to their geo-political agendas and the peons can fiddle with the other stuff.
What force the UN has comes from the big 5 and they can walk under a new structure; but even now our little friend in the Philippines can tell the UN and its threatened ICC to piss-off, because nothing will happen unless one of the big 3 says so.

he UN needs to be torn down and replaced by a model fit for purpose in the 21 century. The Permanent members of the Security Council need to be replaced with Europe given one seat and a possible seat for India or Japan. A new system of simple majority needs to be adopted to prevent the frequent gridlock we now suffer. Russia with aggressive stance to flagrant abuse of international norms should lose its seat, in fact it should have lost it after the breakup of the Soviet Union. We are in desperate need of a functioning Security Council with the means to back up any decisions they make.

+1. In time the UN may regain significance, as the international community develops into a multi-dimensional balance of power between:

* the US -- shining city on the hill ... if you're from the 3rd world
* Europe -- that ziploc bag of jigsaw puzzle pieces that bring back faint memories of a box with a pretty picture on it. where's that damn box?
* China -- lootin', shootin', and pollutin' -- globalization, meet mirror!
* Russia -- arch-nemesis of all that is bright and pure, eternal spoiler of neocon benevolence, last bastion of anti-liberalism, communism, aggression, etc
* Middle east bloc, the not-so-coherent group of gay-executing, infidel-executing, theocracy-autocracy-any-kind-of-ocracy, but hey, they're strategic allies ... except when it turns out they've been naughty and they turn into enemies ...
* rest of the world

This is a political article, written by a politician. The job of politicians is risk management and nothing but. Their job is not to travel around the world as trade emissaries, attending useless trade and other fairs and conferences and so on. The UN has no teeth and never will, a touristic attraction, yes..

It is a bit ironic somebody from Australian politics asking for the UN to seek initiatives on SDGs when Australia is in the top handful of polluters per capita and there is relentless pursuit of environmentally harmfull activities

'Failure to achieve the SDGs – which comprise 17 goals and 169 specific targets – would amount to an indictment of the UN’s raison d'être'

Surely this applies to Australia also, good housekeeping starts at home

See also:

In the first year of his presidency, Donald Trump has consistently sold out the blue-collar, socially conservative whites who brought him to power, while pursuing policies to enrich his fellow plutocrats.

Sooner or later, Trump's core supporters will wake up to this fact, so it is worth asking how far he might go to keep them on his side.

A Saudi prince has been revealed to be the buyer of Leonardo da Vinci's "Salvator Mundi," for which he spent $450.3 million. Had he given the money to the poor, as the subject of the painting instructed another rich man, he could have restored eyesight to nine million people, or enabled 13 million families to grow 50% more food.

While many people believe that technological progress and job destruction are accelerating dramatically, there is no evidence of either trend. In reality, total factor productivity, the best summary measure of the pace of technical change, has been stagnating since 2005 in the US and across the advanced-country world.

The Bollywood film Padmavati has inspired heated debate, hysterical threats of violence, and a ban in four states governed by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party – all before its release. The tolerance that once accompanied India’s remarkable diversity is wearing thin these days.

The Hungarian government has released the results of its "national consultation" on what it calls the "Soros Plan" to flood the country with Muslim migrants and refugees. But no such plan exists, only a taxpayer-funded propaganda campaign to help a corrupt administration deflect attention from its failure to fulfill Hungarians’ aspirations.

French President Emmanuel Macron wants European leaders to appoint a eurozone finance minister as a way to ensure the single currency's long-term viability. But would it work, and, more fundamentally, is it necessary?

The US decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel comes in defiance of overwhelming global opposition. The message is clear: the Trump administration is determined to dictate the Israeli version of peace with the Palestinians, rather than to mediate an equitable agreement between the two sides.